Gingrich Promises Cooperation

House Republicans Back The Georgia Representative To Be Speaker When The 105th Congress Convenes.

November 21, 1996|By Knight-Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — After promising to be less confrontational in the next Congress, Georgia's Newt Gingrich won the unanimous backing of House Republicans on Wednesday for a second term as speaker.

Some Republicans said Gingrich's strategy of aggressively challenging President Clinton was to blame for the party's loss of eight House seats and several close shaves in other races on Election Day.

After his renomination as speaker, Gingrich told reporters he had learned his lesson. ''This will be a different Congress,'' he said. ''There will be far more cooperation between the legislative and executive branches.''

During his first term as speaker, Gingrich and his chief lieutenants largely imposed a politically charged agenda on the House, dictating the shape of major legislation to committees and sometimes bypassing the panels altogether.

In the Congress beginning in January, the speaker said the leadership's closely held power would be ''decentralized'' to the committees and a wider group of policy advisers and coordinators.

The shift came in response to discontent with Gingrich's iron-fisted style in the 104th Congress. Many committee chairmen, along with other senior members, were rankled by the edicts handed down from the small ruling circle.

''We're going to give them (chairmen) more discretion, but also give them more responsibility to develop bipartisan support for legislation,'' said Ohio Rep. John Boehner, chairman of the Republican caucus. ''If we want things signed into law, why not make 1997 look like 1996 (when bipartisan legislation became law)? I'm willing to take three-quarters of a loaf.''

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said the new mood stems mainly from a realization by the party's more vocal conservatives that ''controversy is not a wise formula for legislative success. I don't think anybody will be as aggressive - that's a better word than abrasive - this time. They've learned that less aggressive means better policy.''

Other members acknowledged that Gingrich remained the GOP's inspirational beacon, but also stressed that his grip on the 105th Congress' legislative structure and processes would be markedly weaker.

Many members held their breaths as they cast their votes for Gingrich, awaiting the outcome of an ethics committee probe that could either absolve or condemn him over charges that he violated a ban against charity tax exemptions for political purposes and lied to committee investigators.

Gingrich is due to be officially named speaker when the 105th Congress convenes in January. Democrats will nominate their leader, Richard Gephardt of Missouri, but they lack the votes to elect him over Gingrich.

After becoming House speaker in 1995, Gingrich brought several issues up for House votes - from repeated anti-abortion proposals to repeal of the assault weapons ban - without the normal committee deliberation.

That led in many cases to legislation that carried heavy ideological baggage - and to a confrontation over spending priorities with Clinton that prompted partial shutdowns of the government last winter.

Clinton and his Democratic allies in Congress portrayed the GOP leadership's agenda as ''extremist'' and turned public opinion against Gingrich as a symbol of stubborn obstructionism.

In the latter half of 1996, as an election loomed that appeared to foretell bad news for the Gingrich-led House, GOP strategists became more conciliatory and joined Clinton and the Democrats in passing bills they had earlier opposed.

It was a bittersweet day for the 53-year-old Gingrich. Before the GOP members met to endorse him and their other top officers - Majority Leader Dick Armey and Whip Tom DeLay, both of Texas - the speaker learned that his father, retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Gingrich, had died after a long battle with lung cancer.